The Harvard Gazette reports Harvard scientists have figured out how to make robots made completely out of soft materials - with even their core logic embedded in rubber, rather than microchips. They're relatively simple for now, but the researchers are looking at future applications that go beyond creating rubber octopuses that could crawl across a desert, as cool as that might be: Read more.

Xconomy reports that Nutonomy, which is testing robocars in Boston, has run into a problem in that the rolling Marvins can't figure out what to do at stop lights when there's solar glare that makes it hard to see just which color the signal is. Read more.

Robomart, a San Francisco company, says Stop & Shop will roll out its robogrocery vehicles in the Boston area later this year. Read more.

Researchers at MIT have developed a small plane that uses ions to fly: Read more.

Sure, Boston Dynamics's jumping, cinderblock-flinging would-be metal assassins get all the attention, but in a distant part of Charlestown, another company is quietly designing genial robotic luggage that follows you like a puppy while carrying up to 40 pounds of your stuff, the Charlestown Patriot-Bridge reports.

The Boston Public Library said today it's making hotspot kits - which will let borrowers share an Internet connection with up to 15 other users - available for 21-day loans at all of its branches and the central library in Copley Square.

The devices connect to T-Mobile's Boston network. Anybody with a BPL card can borrow one of the gizmos.

More info.

A federal jury today convicted Martin Gottesfeld, 32, on one count of conspiracy to damage protected computers and one count of damaging protected computers for distributed denial-of-service attacks that disrupted the entire Longwood Medical Area and a Framingham residential youth treatment program. Read more.

Science marches on.

BostInno reports on the opening of the Kessel Run Experimentation Lab near North Station. It's a military "start-up" aimed at shortening the time it takes to build software to help run planes and stuff, and hopes to ramp up to 300 employees.